The Grand Duelist

The narrow passageway right behind the Main Doors had a lot of monsters that frequently respawned. Crimson, Dark Flame, and the Knights of Justice knew what was going to happen, so they were prepared...

The moment that the doors opened, attacks from all sorts of classes flew towards the narrow passageway, striking down every monster in the way. 

"Spread out! Healers, center! Tanks, taunt! DPS, attack! Keep the aggro and make sure that you're not stepping on the aggro-radius of the others! We don't want a mass OT here like before!" William gave his orders. His shining armor shone in a dazzling brilliance as he started his attacks. 

"Vladimir, you know what to do, right?" William made a sidelong glance at the Crimson Guild. 

Vladimir snorted: "Of course! I'll trouble you guys with the healing!"

"What? Can your team not handle healing you all?" William asked.

"There isn't a problem, but in front of the so-called number guild of Knights, the Knights of Justice. Being modest is expected and a must!" Vladimir replied with a sneer.

"Cough..." The healers within the Crimson Guild blushed in embarrassment.

The Knights of the Knights of Justice weren't only tanky, but they also had a second-class that gave them powerful support capabilities in battle...

Combined with their superior game sense, they were far stronger than the Crimson Guild when it came to supporting and healing.

Of course, the Crimson Guild was stronger than them when it came to damage. But that wasn't the point here. The point was that the healers of the Crimson Guild felt ashamed that their guild leader actually dared to compare them to the healers of the Knights of Justice.

William snickered, these bastards from the Crimson Guild weren't probably being modest.

Instead, they were using those words to highlight the weakness of the Knights of Justice in DPS.

"Group up! Group up!" Vladimir shouted and the elites of his Crimson Guild gathered around him.

"Wushang, focus on debuffs. Sean, Emily, come with me! MartyrNoble, you go and snipe the stragglers! As for the others, you know the drill and what must be done! Do not embarrass the Crimson Guild!" Vladimir roared and rushed towards the enemies.

The monsters within the narrow passageway were humanoid-shaped monsters that not only moved extremely fast but were also quite strong in the damage department. They could grab players as if they were Grapplers, and once you were grabbed by one of them...

It was over for you.

Unless the player used a defensive skill to escape or unless he received help from an external source. The monsters whose names were censored and replaced with question marks would open their mouths, and crush the heads of the players that they managed to suppress. 

But of course, even though their damage was overwhelming.

They had clear weaknesses.

One of them was that they could only grab a single player at a time, and they were incredibly weak to fire. 

And among the three guilds, who were the strongest among them when it came to wielding the strength of fire?

Of course, it was Dark Flame!

As soon as they got into position...

They transformed the narrow passageway into an inferno that scorched these terrifying and unknown monsters into ashes.

It was probably too much that they even turned these monsters into ashes.

But their harrowing experiences told them that these unknown monsters would keep on reviving unless they were turned into nothingness.

This was the reason why Nie Yan instructed his members to not hold anything back against these abominations.

"Nie Yan! You're really not too bad. I don't really know why you and your guild stayed at the bottom of the ranks until now." Vladimir complimented Nie Yan's display of skill.

Nie Yan stared coldly and didn't reply. He remained on giving out orders to his guild members as the punitive expedition made by the cooperation of the three guilds, continued their journey deeper into the narrow passageway. 

"There's the door! Twenty meters more!" 

The distance of the three guilds from the door was only about twenty meters. But despite this short distance, the three guilds found themselves overwhelmed. The number of monsters within the narrow passageway drastically increased when they reached the thirty-meter mark. 

Suddenly, they found themselves struggling than ever before.

"Shit! The elemental affinity of these bastards changed from Wood into Metal! Fire won't work anymore! Use Earth Elemental Skills!" Nie Yan violently cursed when he realized the reason why they were stuck in this position.

The monsters that they easily burned into ashes earlier were now invulnerable in the face of the inferno. 

"Ah, shit! Help! Help!" A distant scream rang out, Nie Yan turned to look at that scream and he was astonished to find one of his guild members being grabbed by one of the abominable monsters.

Nie Yan leaped to assist his subordinate, but it was already too late.

The monster had opened its mouth and was already munching on the skull of the player.

Nie Yan's subordinate was instantly killed.

Instantly killing a Level 150+ Player was something unthinkable in the world of Victory.

But these monsters did it. 

In a single attack, they crushed the skull of the poor player and instantly killed him.

"You..." Nie Yan clenched his fists in anger. He swiftly turned around and a whip reinforced by the essence of earth appeared in his hand as he struck.

Peng!

A dull sound rang out and the monster flew backward.

Seeing that the monster was still alive. Nie Yan's fury further increased.

But when he took a step forward to slaughter that bastard, an attack flew and landed on that monster.

"Calm the fuck down, Nie Yan! Can you still call yourself a guild leader if you easily panic like that?" The attack came from William. He hurled a Spear made out of the holy light of the Divine Goddess Rhinna and exorcised the monster into ashes. 

Vladimir took this opportunity to mock. "Now, I see... So this is the reason why Dark Flame sat on the bottom for so long? To think that they would have such an incompetent leader, hehehe..."

Vladimir shook his head in disapproval and even kicked a monster that approached him away, making sure that everyone saw how leisurely he was in battle. 

"You..." Nie Yan glared at Vladimir. 

"Guild Leader, calm down! It's not worth it." A female subordinate of Nie Yan approached him and gave a piece of advice. She glared at Vladimir's direction, but Vladimir merely whistled as he turned his gaze away from the two.

"I know, Marga... I'm sorry, I should've kept my calm." Nie Yan apologized to the young woman.

"Don't worry about it. But let's wrap this up for now. We're still in battle."

Marga nodded her head and ruffled Nie Yan's hair.

Nie Yan nodded and he proceeded to direct his anger on the monsters that barred their way.

Meanwhile, on Vladimir's side. 

"Hey, you so-called Number One Knight! Stabilize the aggro of those bastards! Don't tell me that you can't handle the aggro of dozens of monsters at once, right? I'm sure that you don't want an OT to happen!" Vladimir instructed William.

"Hey, you great healer there at the Knights of Justice! Don't forget that we're in a cooperative relationship! Why are you only focusing your team members? Give some help to us too, or else I'll make sure to reduce the spoils of war that you'll receive after this!"

Vladimir said to a particular healer at the Knights of Justice.

"Why the fuck are you so noisy, Vladimir?" William furrowed his eyebrows and complained.

Vladimir snorted, "If I wasn't so noisy like this, won't I look like I'm not doing anything?"

What he said was true.

Although the monsters in the narrow passageway were strong. They couldn't hold a candle to the monsters after this narrow passageway, just before the Main Hall.

That was the reason why Vladimir felt like he wasn't doing anything.

After all, he was a Grappler and he needed to approach his enemies before he could deal damage.

But how could he deal damage against his enemies when his enemies died before he could even approach them?

These viney monsters in the narrow passageway may be strong and fast, but they were far too fragile!

William didn't really disapprove of what Vladimir had said, but his particular style of shot-calling felt jarring to him. But in general, their journey within the narrow passageway went smooth and harmonious.

Apart from Nie Yan's inappropriate outburst earlier, they didn't have that many problems reaching the doors that would lead them to the Main Hall.

The Main Hall was the place where they were stuck. No matter what they did, they couldn't reach the doors at the end of the Main Hall that should lead them to the Palace Halls. But the monsters alone after the narrow passageway weren't the reason why they were stuck.

It was because of the existence of a particular BOSS inside the Main Hall...

"Gather around for a meeting!" William gave his orders and everyone gathered around him.

"Some of you may not know about the BOSS that we are about to face after this door so we will convene this short meeting." William swept his gaze at some of the elite members of the three guilds.

When they were still in the middle of gathering sufficient information about the dungeon within the Royal Palace...

They didn't send their elite members for reconnaissance.

Instead, they sent players whom they considered as cannon fodders and used their sacrifice to acquire the information that they had in their hands right now.

This was the reason why William made everyone gather around him for a small meeting.

It was for the sake of those players that knew close to nothing about the BOSS.

William informed everyone about the characteristics of the BOSS that they were about to face.

The BOSS that stood in front of the doors of the Palace Hall had the name, the Great Wandering Bard. 

He looked to be a hunchback humanoid monster that had a ukulele in his hand.

All of his attacks were soundwave-based so it was close to impossible for someone to dodge it if the attack was already sent to their direction.

But these players from Dark Flame, Knights of Justice, and Crimson were smart.

Although it difficult for them to dodge the soundwave attacks. From the data that they gathered, they concluded that the attacks of the Great Wandering Bard could be avoided by steering away from the direction that the Great Wandering Bard was facing.

In other words, they surmised that the soundwave attacks of the Great Wandering Bard weren't really omnidirectional but in a cone-shaped trajectory in one direction where the Great Wandering Bard was facing.

This information was reliable for they had personally experienced it when they fought against the Great Wandering Bard last time.

But there was a certain problem that they needed to tackle once the Great Wandering Bard's Health dropped to fifty-percent.

Special BOSSes in the world of Victory such as wild BOSSes and Region BOSSes had three phases.

At fifty-percent health...

Special BOSSes would enter the so-called Irritated Phase.

The nature of their attack would remain unchanged, but their attack patterns would become complicated.

Furthermore, they would also deploy certain attacks that could instantly kill several players at once.

At twenty-five percent. Special BOSSes would enter the Boiling Anger Phase. In this phase, the nature of their attacks would change into something completely different.

Their attack patterns would not only become more complex, but Special BOSSes in this state would receive a dramatic increase in their four main stats.

Namely, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Stamina.

An increase in any of the four main stats in the middle of a battle could be the difference between life and death.

The three guilds managed to reach this phase until they were instantly killed by the Great Wandering Bard.

As for the third phase, it was the most dangerous phase called the Enraged Phase.

In this stage, the Special BOSS would transform into something completely different from their original form when their healths were still full. They would gain another dramatic boost in their four main stats, but their defenses would be drastically decreased.

Whenever the battle against a BOSS reached this phase, every player should not hold themselves back. Their mission would be to kill the BOSS as fast as possible through any means possible, no holds barred. 

The three guilds still haven't seen the Enraged Phase of the Great Wandering Bard.

But they believed that their firepower was sufficient to kill this Great Wandering Bard once that phase was reached.

After all, that phase started when the Special BOSS only had ten percent of his health remaining.

Removing that amount of Health from a BOSS wasn't so hard if there were dozens of high-leveled players attacking at once.

The three guilds completed their meeting and William finally opened the doors of the Main Hall.

Once the doors fully opened, they were greeted by dozens of monsters similar to what they had encountered from the narrow passageway.

The three guilds acted quickly.

None of them said anything anymore as they swarmed forth to DPS.

"Melee players, be careful of your positioning! Make sure to give the ranged players some space to attack! The area is tight so all of you guys must be careful to not be in the crosshairs of the Mages!"

"Especially you guys from the other guilds! If I see one of your attacks land on my members, even if they were intentional or not, I will make you pay!"

Vladimir roared his orders. The Main Hall was quite huge, but that space was quickly eaten up by dozens of players that swarmed in from the narrow passageway. The place became tight, and if one wasn't careful. Their attacks could land on a comrade causing discord among them all.

William glanced at Vladimir and though that even though Vladimir's mouth was crude.

He couldn't help but admit that he really was knowledgeable when it came to large-scale battles inside a dungeon.

One of the reasons why bringing a lot of members to a dungeon was far harder than keeping your numbers to a minimum was because of positioning.

But William was confident in the skills of the elite members of the three guilds.

None of them were amateurs and they knew what to do. They must keep the rhythm of their attacks uniform while making sure that there was sufficient distance between them and their comrades.

But why would they need to do that?

It was because Victory didn't ignore collisions. Due to this limitation, the more people there were, the harder it was for an individual to perform at their best, causing the collective collapse of their overall strength and in turn, making the dungeon harder than what it seemed. 

Thankfully, everyone here knew what they ought to do.

As soon as Vladimir's orders came out.

Everyone began to pay more attention to their positioning and rhythm.

Although the synchronization of the three guilds with each other wasn't that harmonious. They knew their role too well, so it didn't take them too long to dispatch the several dozens of monsters that barred their way to the Special BOSS.

Once the final monster collapsed.

The hunchback Special BOSS named the Great Wandering Bard finally turned around to look at them and roared.

"You bastards..." 

"As long as I stand..."

"None of you shall pass!"

The Great Wandering Bard took a ukulele out of nowhere and a huge Health Bar appeared above his head. The passageway leading to the Palace Hall that he guarded dramatically changed.

The monsters that the players recently vanquished materialized once again and they quickly moved and surrounded the players.

"Hehehe... You old man... We're back here to take our revenge!"

Vladimir glared at the Great Wandering Bard.

He ran forwards and led the Crimson Guild to an attack!

1. [Note: OT = Aggro goes "off the tank" Off Tank] [Note: Aggro-radius = The area around the monster that if entered, would elicit a response from that monster in the form of gathering its aggro or causing it to attack at you.]